


it talks in tongues and quiet sighs

by reylotea



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Ben Solo Lives, Dealing with the Repercussions, Devoted Reylo, Eventual HEA, F/M, Figuring It Out As They Go Along, Fix-It, Fluff, Force Bond (Star Wars), Rebuilding the Galaxy, Smut, TROS Fix-It Fic, That's Not How The Force Works, The Force Ships It, Virgin Ben Solo, Virgin Rey (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:54:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21934048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reylotea/pseuds/reylotea
Summary: He tightens his arms around her fading presence, trying to keep her with him a little bit longer. Here in this strange in between, she is pure light, a Force that holds him steadily. A warmth blooms within him that spreads and burns until it is almost unbearable. He feels like a solar flare. The heat consumes him, bright and unforgiving until it bursts through his very core and suddenly he is a dying star, ripped apart and remade all in one furious moment.Something is pushing him upwards. The soothing darkness around him is growing brighter and he feels the pressure as if trying to break the surface of some unseen barrier.Her voice is fading but still, he hears her, feels the love and strength that grounds him one last time."Wake up, little starfighter."_____________________Or: In which Ben Solo lives through his mother's parting gift. The rest is up to him and Rey.(TROS SPOILERS)
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 12
Kudos: 109





	it talks in tongues and quiet sighs

+++

He's floating. That's what it feels like. His body is weightless, embraced by silence and comforting darkness.

It's peaceful in the dark. No more pain running through his limbs, no empty longing seizing his heart. His mind that has held nothing but enough chaos to last well into the afterlife is blissfully empty. There are no voices trying to tear him apart.

He could finally rest here. 

So he does. 

For a long while he floats, drifting endlessly in and out of consciousness within the strange, suspended space that cradles him. Time passes, but he doesn't know how long. Every once in a while there is a tug within his chest that pulls at him. As if his heart is tied to the end of a string. 

Ben doesn't remember what's at the other end of it. 

He sleeps, dreamless and deep.

  
  


+++

  
  


Something disturbs the blessed dark.

It's slight at first, a barely-there caress that strokes across his brow in a familiar, soothing way. Soft hands tangle and tug into messy curls and suddenly he is a child again, tucked into her warm arms. He swears he can even smell the gingerbells she always kept in their apartments no matter where they traveled to. A bit of her homeworld, all across the galaxy. 

_Mom._

Leia's voice is a balm against his soul, clear and strong.

"I'm so proud of you, Ben." He feels a kiss being pressed into his hair. 

He tightens his arms around her fading presence, trying to keep her with him a little bit longer. Here in this strange in between, she is pure light, a Force that holds him steadily. A warmth blooms within him that spreads and burns until it is almost unbearable. He feels like a solar flare. The heat consumes him, bright and unforgiving until it bursts through his very core and suddenly he is a dying star, ripped apart and remade all in one furious moment. 

Something is pushing him upwards. The soothing darkness around him is growing brighter and he feels the pressure as if trying to break the surface of some unseen barrier. 

Her voice is fading but still, he hears her, feels the love and strength that grounds him one last time.

"Wake up, little starfighter."

  
  


+++

Ben comes back to himself with a painful hitch in his breath. The weight of his broken body strains as his mind catches up to catalog every single ache and pain that feels brand new. His head is pounding, his back throbbing and his leg is disturbingly numb. His chest feels heavy as he takes in more shuddering breaths, working to get the blood pumping through his system once more. He knows that in hindsight, he shouldn't be here right now. He knows that he should still be floating in that dark in-between, fading away to nothing. 

All it takes is for him to turn his neck, wincing at the sharp crick he feels, before his eyes land on an achingly familiar face just inches from his own. 

Everything comes crashing back with vibrant and hard clarity. 

His absolute half-assed plan to come here and find Rey. The Emperor, throwing him into that godforsaken pit. Clawing his way up, by sheer force of will to get to her. Dragging his broken body along, only to find her cold and lifeless. Holding her. Knowing what he had to do. Pouring everything he possibly had into her, willing her eyes to open. Finding peace and purpose the moment they did. 

Feeling nothing but her sweetness and light as she pressed her lips to his. Wanting nothing more than to bask in that light for the rest of his days.

Then nothing. Darkness, silence, floating.

Yet here he was now, by the grace of his mother's unconditional love. 

He would not let that love down.

+++

Ben forced himself to roll onto his side, a feat of movement short of miraculous in his current state. He stared at Rey, noting how pale she looked, how the shadows beneath her eyes were more prominent than he’d ever seen them. At first, he had felt a stab of panic, for she was so still and her eyes shut tight but then there was a flood of relief at the smallest rise of her chest, soft breaths making the little wisps of hair around her face flutter. 

Unwilling to disturb her, he watched her sleep, taking in every minuscule movement she made, every twitch of her lips, every flicker behind her closed lids. 

After a while, he gathered up the courage to feel for that heartstring that bound them in the Force. It hummed, dim but growing stronger with each passing moment, healing the gaping maw that his death had left. 

Her fingers had tangled tightly into the sleeve of his shirt in her sleep, and he could see the tears that stained tracks down her bruised and bloodied face. Time was hard to tell by now, but however long he had been gone, it seems Rey had never left his side. 

The battle he remembered raging overhead was gone, lightning-filled skies now empty and dark. 

It pained him, realizing that she would stay in this place that should have been his tomb. 

She should have been far away by now, galaxies away from this cursed planet.

  
  


+++

Ben waited for as long as he could, but eventually, impatience won out. He needed to see her eyes, hear her voice. 

He lifted the hand she wasn't clutching in a death grip and gently cupped her face, willing her to wake up.

"Rey." 

His voice was coarse, almost haggard from disuse, but he called out to her again when he saw how she began to stir.

"Rey, wake up." He whispered, softly grazing his thumb against her cheek. He felt her twitch beneath his palm, lashes fluttering against her cheekbones as she struggled to wake.

“Sweetheart, please wake up."

Rey’s eyes opened slowly, heavily, waking from a deep sleep. She blinked, unseeing as she regained consciousness. Finally, she awoke and stared at him, unmoving. He watched what little color was left in her face quickly recede. Her hazel eyes widened and she gave an almost panicked gasp. 

"You're not real." She choked out, her eyes staring hard enough to water. She quickly closed them tight, shaking her head as if to dispel an unwanted vision.

"You're dead...Ben's dead." her voice was a broken and exhausted whisper. 

“Please don’t do this to me again,” she begged desperately. 

Ben realized this was not the first specter she had seen and it broke his heart.

His fingers trailed into her hair, tangling in her trio of buns. He dragged himself closer to her, noses practically brushing. She was crying now, full sobs that wracked her small body as he attempted to drag them closer together. He hoped she would soon realize that he was solid and _here_ , but who knows what other ghosts she had seen in this damned place.

If he had to prove to her for the rest of his new-found life that he was real, he would. Starting with this moment. 

He pressed his lips to hers. Softly, then more firmly as she stiffened in his arms before melting against him. Rey let out a stunned breath and he took that moment to deepen the kiss, touching his tongue lightly against hers. She froze a fraction before meeting him in kind, licking into his mouth with tentative strokes before biting lightly into his bottom lip. 

Ben groaned softly, pulling her tighter against him. Her arms engulfed him, fingers gripping him hard, winding into his hair and around his back, clutching him to herself with bruising force. 

He felt wetness, tasted salt. Rey was shaking into their embrace, his name a broken, hopeful prayer on her lips. 

_Ben. Ben. Ben._

He trailed kisses from her mouth down to her neck and up again, peppering her entire face with them. 

"I'm here, sweetheart, I promise I'm here with you." He murmured against her skin, kissing her until she was breathless.

Finally, she pulled away, confusion and a bit of uncertainty warring on her face. He stroked her hair, never moving more than a few inches away.

"It's really you?" she asked, some strength beginning to return to her cracked voice. 

He kissed her again, solid and whole.

"It's me, stardust. I'm real." He smiled softly, squeezing his arms around her. Rey hugged him back.

"How? I tried Ben...I tried reaching you." she whispered. "I wasn't - I.." she stumbled over her words before she tore her gaze away from his, swallowing tightly.

"I wasn't strong enough."

His fingers gently lifted her chin up, forcing her to meet his heavy stare. 

"Never apologize for that, Rey. I chose to give you my life. It was my choice and I would happily make it again."

Rey shook her head, holding back the tears that had gathered once again. Her voice was suddenly hard with resolve. 

"So help me Ben Solo, you are never allowed to leave me ever again." 

"We'll agree to disagree." His lips curved into a half-smile as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. 

+++

His eyes drifted shut as a heavy breath shuddered through him. He was weak, exhausted and on the verge of passing out...but his other half was back in his arms once more. He ignored the cold beginning to seep into his bones. Instead, he clung to Rey and the warmth she imbued upon him, clutching her tighter. If she minded, she didn't say. 

"How long has it been?" he asked quietly, uncertain if he wanted to know the answer. 

Rey sighed, sounding even more exhausted than he was. 

"It's been about four days."

The answer tore at him in a vicious way. 

"Why are you still here, Rey?" he whispered. He watched her eyes cloud, her voice straining. 

"I couldn't leave here knowing you wouldn't leave with me."

Ben gripped her tighter, pulling her to his chest. Rey clutched at him, holding tight to the solid weight of him in her arms, soaking in the warmth she felt radiating from his chest.

"That's not what you're supposed to do." He choked, muffling his words into her hair, lips trailing across her temple and down her cheek. 

"You were supposed to go on without me." 

Rey hugged him tighter. He was bruised, broken and bloody but by some miracle he was _alive_ and she was holding the only person who ever wanted to stay by her side. 

"There is no me without you, Ben. You said it yourself...we're a dyad. A two-for-one deal. No more dying valiantly to save my life. Never again." she glared up at him with kyber-bright eyes, a bit of that spark returning to her burning gaze. 

Her nails dug into his chest through his thin shirt, pulling him impossibly closer as she smashed her mouth roughly against his. It was ungraceful and awkward but Ben kissed her back with all of the shared fury between them.

"Promise me, Ben. Swear you'll never leave me alone again." she rasped, angry tears welling up as she kissed him harder.

Ben let her take her anger out on him, with bruising kisses and biting teeth. Finally, she broke away, breathless and shaky. He could feel her desperation thrumming through their bond. It was like striking a wrong note, discordant and harsh. He cupped her face in his hands, making her look into his heavy gaze. He would promise her the very galaxy if that's what she wanted.

He leaned his forehead against hers, waiting until she calmed as he tugged on the thread of their healing bond, soothing her, letting his mind pour into hers. She closed her eyes at the sensation, and he could feel her own mind opening to his, an endless loop of feeling. It was overwhelming and new, but the closeness he felt was worth it. 

"I promise I will never leave you again. We will go throughout this life and onto the next together or not at all," he whispered, lips pressing against hers in promise. 

She finally smiled at him, soft, sweet and eternally bright. She was his guiding light, his beacon, his star. For the first time in a long time, he basked in it, letting it seep into his weary bones and warm a bit of his tattered soul. 

The bond sang, wrapping around his vowed words, using them to mend the wounds they had wrought upon each other for so long. 

Rey echoed his promise. "Together or not at all."

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays, Reylo Fam <3


End file.
